Dairy owner has had enough

Stuff reports:

Harshesh Patel has a permanent injury from a hold-up, his wife can’t sleep and his son is scared to leave the house.

The Hamilton couple have now shut their Chartwell dairy’s doors after mental stress from countless robberies and violent confrontations – and a Claudelands dairy will follow suit this weekend.

“We just can’t take it,” Harshesh Patel said. “It’s too much for us.”

The River Rd Dairy and Lotto Shop had been robbed “lots of times” over the last few years, Patel said.

Dairy robberies used to be very rare. Now they are a near daily occurrence.

He said five years ago the teens would come in wearing masks and gloves to hide their identity and fingerprints. Now they didn’t bother.

“They just come and steal. There is no fear.”

Sometimes, he said, they were robbed by children as young as 10.

They know there will be almost no consequence for their offending due to their age, so they don’t have to even hid their face now.

“All over New Zealand it’s happening, and the Government is doing nothing about it.”

Well nothing useful.